MAE 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 6 (November/December)
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Sponsored by
JOE COTHRON
Deputy Director
Education Division
U.S. Army Human Resources Command
Alexandria, VA
“Back in the old days, we had sergeants and also officers in there who didn’t have degrees, and of course very few of our enlisted people did,” Cothron noted. “Their philosophy was, ‘I don’t have an education and I’m making it in the Army, so why do you need one?’ They were very skeptical about releasing soldiers [to do coursework] or spreading the word about what education could do.”
Today, few staff, first-class or master sergeants are without bachelor’s degrees, while an officer without one is virtually unheard of—and most have advanced degrees, noted Cothron, who began his military career as an instructor at Redstone Arsenal and today is deputy director of the U.S. Army Human Resources Command’s education division. Driving that change, at least in part, is the realization that education benefits improve recruitment and retention as well as create a fighting force that’s more capable and prepared. Enlistees don’t necessarily need to wait until after their discharge to earn advanced degrees; they are encouraged to earn them while in the service.
“One of the things people would say once was, ‘I graduated from high school and now I’m going to college, where I’ll get a degree and be able to get a good job.’” Cothron said. “Then you had your [average enlistee] Johnny who said, ‘Well, I’m going in the military.’ Four years later, Johnny gets out of the military but he doesn’t have a job. He’s got to start all over to get a degree. But now Johnny can come into the military and, like his [civilian] counterpart, walk out [some] years later with a degree, but all paid for. [So] the mindset really has changed. Education has found its way in the military and is being supported.”
Helping make the pursuit of education while in the service much easier, too, is the development of distance learning, Cothron noted. Online coursework may never quite match what in-class instruction offers, he said, but then again technology is progressing so quickly that what students can now view and hear online is certainly coming close to what they used to be able to get only in person, he said.
Cothron began his career as a junior high school science teacher, and then began his lifelong connection with the Army as a platform instructor at Redstone Arsenal, where he taught soldiers math and science related to the basic electronics and communications systems of missile systems. This was during the Vietnam War, when many military instructors were being sent overseas, Cothron noted, and it was also an era when the technology related to missile systems was changing rapidly. Moving from teacher to training director, Cothron helped oversee other instructors and develop updated, consistent curriculums.
Then, moving from military training to voluntary education, Cothron worked in Alaska, at forts Greeley and Wainwright, as an education specialist; at Army headquarters, among other things working with the American Council on Education to develop accreditation rules and processes for military experience; and finally in Korea, where he eventually became director of education for the Eighth Army.
Cothron, who has been in his present job since May 2007, said seemingly small encounters with people he advised decades ago are among the greatest enjoyments he gets from his job. One E6 that he’d worked with in Korea, who at the time had wanted to go to officer candidate school, left his card on Cothron’s desk the other day while Cothron was on a temporary duty assignment.
“I called him and he said, ‘You don’t remember me, do you?’” Cothron said. “This was 25 or so years ago. He told me who he was and said, ‘I just want to let you know that I’m at Fort Meade and I’m a full bird colonel.’ So now and then we do [hear from people]. It only takes one or two of those to really make your day and make your career seem worthwhile.” ♦